Tarja pressed the pendant on her neck. “Objective complete”, she announced.

“26minutes and 45 seconds”, was the computer’s response. “Not bad for first time”.

“Returning to you now”, she informed the computer

“Acknowledged”

Eric was standing on her side.  She looked at him approvingly.  He smiled awkwardly and offered her the wipes.  She smiled back while placing them in her handbag.

“Let’s get out of here… erm… what is your name?”

“Eric, madam, Eric”, he said feeling like a child.

“Lead the way Eric, then…”

Heading back, they used the same route.  They reached the main lobby and the middle aged door guard.  He saw the woman, accompanied from Eric, and got up to open the door for her.  Before he reached the door bolt she had reached her gun and shot him in the back.  The guard was shrunk and she bent down to pick him up.  She was opening her handbag to deposit him when she heard Eric:

“Why did you do that to him? He didn’t try to harm you”

“No, he did not, but he had seen me.  I can’t leave any witnesses behind”, she added matter-of-factly.

“What does that mean? What about me?”, he asked worryingly.

“Means that…”, Eric was douched in bright light.  His eyes blinked trying to adjust, and then the light was gone.  In the distance he could make out a huge foot shape.

“… You are coming with me”.  Her voice now sounded too deep to his shrunken ears.

He did not try to flee when she picked him up gently and placed him in her handbag, in the same compartment as her other three prisoners.

She reached behind his counter and placed a green gem on top of the security camera monitor and squashed it between her fingers.  The gem dissolved into a gel like substance which dropped down the ventilation slits of the device.  It travelled down the closed circuit, reaching all the devices connected there, setting them on fire and erasing any electronic trace of her visit.

She carefully opened the entrance door and left the building walking calmly.  Assignment JE-7634 was complete and she had done a pretty good job.  She was now more accustomed to this bizarre brittle planet and its inhabitants.  She would return here soon for future missions and her newly found knowledge will help her to be a better agent.

She walked back to her cloaked spaceship, still watching her steps and avoiding stepping on anything larger than pebbles.  Several of them were casually crushed to dust under her feet, but the autumn wind blew away the dust, rendering her footsteps untraceable.

The spaceship computer greeted her warmly.  At her command, they ascended rapidly, building up speed and left the gravitational field of Earth in a few minutes.  They would reach the AQD headquarters in a couple of days.  In the meantime, she had time to learn more about Earth from her tiny captives.

When she finished filing the details of her mission, she laid back and relaxed to have a drink.

She opened her handbag and discarded the used up wipes.  She laid the bag on the table and purposely left it open.  She put her feet on the table and sipped her drink quietly.  Soon, three out of the four tiny men emerged, jumping out of the bag.  Two of them looked unsure of what to do and how to react as they wandered on the table.  The third one was much more at ease with this gigantic woman.  He approached the edge of the table and sat down. He waved at her beautiful face from the distance.

“Well, well, little ones. We have a lot to talk about.  And we have plenty of time”, she said looking at Eric.

The door guard and the technician mustered up courage to approach the edge of the table and finally sat near Eric.

“I can assure you guys, if you are good to me, I will take care of you.  I expect you to be careful and responsible. Eric here can tell you what will happen if you fail”, she said calmly.

“Is this understood?”

They all nodded in unison.

“Good.  Now, tell me some stories about your life on Earth…”